


Burning

by Meraad



Series: The Many Adventures of Aella and Thom [8]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Aella gets burned, F/M, M/M, Minor Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus, more sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 16:01:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9392567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meraad/pseuds/Meraad
Summary: It would serve her right, Aella thought bitterly, if she died alone in the middle of the Hinterlands. She felt as if fire still licked up her back. Maybe it did.On her hands and knees, face pressed into the cool grass, the scent of embrium and burnt flesh in her nose. Perfect way for the Inquisitor, the Herald of Andraste, to die.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Aren't my titles so original? *eye roll*

It would serve her right, Aella thought bitterly, if she died alone in the middle of the Hinterlands. She felt as if fire still licked up her back. Maybe it did.

On her hands and knees, face pressed into the cool grass, the scent of embrium and burnt flesh in her nose. Perfect way for the Inquisitor, the Herald of Andraste, to die.

She had wandered away from the camp gathering herbs, when she'd stumbled upon a rift and a vicious rage demon that had taken her by surprise. Aella wasn't sure how far she'd walked, but she knew there was still some distance back to the camp and she didn't think she could go any further.

“You can't die,” Cole was suddenly on his knees beside her. “He would be lost again.” He touched her face, pressed the cold glass flask to her lips.

Aella choked, sputtered. Desperately tried to swallow. Gagged.

“Boss!” Iron Bull let out a string of curses that made the corner of her lips turn up into a grin before a flash of pain seared up her spine. “Fuck,” he muttered. “Told you not to wander off alone.”

“Couldn't stand you and Dorian flirting,” she rasped out with an attempted grin.

Big hands hovered over her, afraid to touch her, but wanting to help. “You love it and you know it.”

“I do.” She grunted, curled her hands into fists around the grass. “Help me up,” she stuck her hand out, searching for Bull's.

“Boss...”

“Just do it, damn it.” A big hand curled under one arm, a smaller under the other. Then Dorian was in front of her, another healing potion pressed to her lips. She swallowed, felt the pain ease incrementally.

“You know,” Dorian said as they slowly made their way back to camp. “He'll never let you leave Skyhold without him again.”

Aella knew it was hard for Thom to let her leave knowing he wasn't there to watch her back. It wasn't that he didn't believe she could take care of herself, or that the others wouldn't watch out for her. It was the weeks, or sometimes months apart. The not knowing. After being alone for so long, finding and nearly losing love, life, everything. Thom often said he didn't know what he would do if he ever lost her.

To which Aella, smart ass that she was, usually had some elaborate story of what he'd do without her. Usually involving brazen women and grand adventures where he always came out on top. In more ways than one. The truth was, Aella knew a part of her would be irrevocably broken if she ever lost Thom. The near miss when he'd outed himself as a liar had nearly done her in, turned her into a hard shell of a woman who would have never allowed anyone in ever again.

She would have lost her friends, the ones she cherished above all else. Aella sagged suddenly, her legs no longer strong enough to support even a fraction of her weight, as most of it was supported by Iron Bull. “That's it,” he said and in the next moment, he had her draped over his shoulders.

“Maker's balls! Bull!” Aella yelled, then coughed violently, pain ricocheting through her entire body. “Damn it, Dorian, can't you keep your boyfriend in line.” She caught the raised eyebrow.

“You know as well as I do, no one controls The Bull.”

With that, Aella gave up the fight. She sagged, let her eyes slide shut and willed her body to heal. She had no skills when it came to mending flesh or easing pain. Bolts of lightening or balls of fire she could do. Neither were of any help to her at the moment.

 

Back at the camp, they laid her out on a cot, Cole dragged a box over and sat at one end, so she could rest her cheek against his thighs while he held her hands. She could hear Bull and Dorian whispering, trying to be discrete. They were not doing a very good job of it. “I can hear you!” she finally yelled. “Just... do it.” Her clothes, cotton fabric, leather, and silk were fused to her skin in some places. The healing potions did nothing to push out an object embedded in the skin, simply healed around it.

“Short of one of us hitting you over the head, we have no way of knocking you out. We can't hold you down, either.” Too much of her skin had already burned off. No place to touch.

Cole gave her hands a gentle squeeze. “It's fine. I'll be still. Just... just do it, Dorian.”

It felt like weeks upon weeks of pain. Cole murmured to her, reassuring words, squeezing her hands harder when they pain got worse. Finally, Dorian let out a breath. “I think that's all of it,” he said and Aella cracked open one eye and promptly shut it again.

Aella was in and out of consciousness as they made the trek back to Skyhold. “We're back,” Cole said, fingers lighting touching her temple. Opening her eyes she saw nothing. It was dark. Late night? Or early morning? “Late,” Cole answered her unasked question.

“Have Iron Bull get him,” she said, knowing that it was the best option. They weren't supposed to be back, not for at least another week. But word would spread quickly of their early return, and Thom would be there. “Send him to my quarters.”

Normally, if Aella had been away and Thom stayed behind, she would track him down, and depending on her mood, tug him into a dark corner and have her wicked way with him, or drag him away to her room, with a bed and no interruptions and spend a few hours reminding him of all the reasons he loved her.

But now, Aella was laid out on her bed, utterly naked and maybe a little bit drugged. Pain relievers had always done funny things to her head, and that combined with the potions to help her heal and fight off infection left her head a little fuzzy.

“Maker's-” he didn't even get the rest of it out. He was at her side in an instant, hand hovering, afraid to touch. “Aella,” Thom's voice broke and she tilted her head a little to see him better.

“I'm okay,” she said.

“Never again.” It was a command and she quirked and eyebrow at him. “Where were they? Why weren't they watching your back?”

Stretching out her arm slowly, painfully, she waggled her fingers at him. “Thom, love, please.”

He was pacing, ranting, going on about figuring out ways to dismember the lot of them. She didn't have a lot of energy, but she had enough, she thought and sent a little shock of electricity right at his ass. Not enough to hurt, but it got his attention. He whirled around, his eyes slits. “Are you quite done, my love?” He sagged suddenly and was on his knees beside the bed, careful fingers taking her hand, he pressed his lips to each knuckle.

“It's bad,” he said, facial hair tickling against her fingers. She twisted her index finger and gave his beard a little tug.

“I need a kiss.”

“Aella.”

“Give me a damn kiss, Thom.” He did, though he frowned deeply before leaning forward, fingers touching her undamaged face, and brushed a barely-there kiss against her lips. She let out a quiet grunt of disapproval when he pulled back. “That hardly counts as a kiss. I want a real one,” she demanded.

“You can have a real one when the flesh of your back hasn't been seared off. I don't think you deserve one actually.” She made a little gasping sound at that and he caught her hand, laced their fingers together when she would have tugged at his beard again. “I am fairly certain I told you to be careful. Not to get hurt.”

Ah, yes, the goodbye kiss that had turned into him taking her fast and rough against the wall in the barn. They had begun to figure out ways to work around their difference in size. He was strong, but couldn't support her weight against a wall for any length of time. There were two coils of rope hanging at just the right height on the wall that afforded the most privacy. She'd slipped her arms through, held on and keened as he drove into her. He'd left small finger-shaped bruises on her hips and a hickey on her breast.

She tugged on his hand now, dragging it over so she could press kisses against his knuckles. Calloused, scared hands, skin that held the scent of wood and fresh hay. Eyes slipping shut, she willed away the tears that suddenly threatened to fall at the thought of never seeing him again. “I'm sorry,” her voice cracked and she pressed her lips hard against his hand.

He drew his hand away and a tear escaped. Then the bed dipped and Thom cupped her chin, tipped her face and leaned in to bestow upon her a soft, sweet kiss that made her heart flutter. “Maker's balls, Aella,” he breathed against her lips and rested his forehead against hers. He stretched out on the bed beside her, making sure not to touch any of her burns. “Tell me what happened.”

She did. Told him everything. From going after the Venatori, to meeting a sweet old woman with her grown-up grandchildren, doing everything they could to make their way someplace safe. The woman had thanked Aella for all that she had done, even shaken her hand. Then she told him about settling into camp, and Iron Bull's over the top flirtations and innuendos Dorian that had turned him pink. Grinning, she'd wandered off to gather herbs that she knew they needed only to discover a rift and a Rage demon. She'd managed to kill it, and seal the rift, but not before it had sent fire licking up her back.

At some point, Aella dozed off and on, the pain dull, but persistent, while Thom had told her of what happened at Skyhold while she was away. Sera and her tricks, Cassandra and Varric nearly coming to blows in the courtyard. “Over the next part of his story, I think.” Aella laughed softly.

“What do you imagine will happen?” she asked, eyes closed, their breath mingled. She loved these quiet moments with Thom. The times when they spoke of nothing and everything at once.

“You're the one that has read that smut. Not me.”

She laughed. “I mean to everyone here. All of us. Once Coryphushit is gone. Bull has the Chargers. Cass has the Seekers, or well, maybe she'll be the next Divine. But the others, Cole, Dorian...” she grinned. “Imagine Dorian out with the Chargers.”

“I suppose everyone goes back to what they were doing before.” Aella opened her eyes, found him staring back into hers. “What do you want to do once this is all over?”

Aella's throat felt tight. She knew what she wanted, but never thought she'd have. But maybe, just maybe... “I want you.”

“You've got me.”

“A house. It doesn't have to be big.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Cookies.”

He grinned at that. “All the cookies you can eat, love.”

“You'll help me make them?”

“You know I will.” Aella smiled, let her eyes slip shut and drifted back off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I have been trying to write the part Aella discovers the truth about Blackwall. But it is fighting me. So I'll just have to work around it for now.


End file.
